Updated Friday, Nov. 15.
After becoming a popular eatery over the past two years in Huntingdon, a family-owned sandwich shop is ready to welcome customers to its new home in the State College area.
Moxmoe Pictures Famous Sandwiches is scheduled to open at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14, offering uniquely named subs and build-your-own options at 321C Benner Pike, between Party City and Fine Wine & Spirits in the Benner Pike Shops.
Owners Kate and Moe Thompson started serving their subs and sides in 2022, and after about a year they started looking to expand, evaluating options in Altoona and State College before landing on the Benner Pike location. The space appealed to the Thompsons because of the surrounding businesses and the expected development boom in the Dale Summit area.
“We loved Huntingdon. Huntingdon is our home. There’s only 7,000 people in Huntingdon,” Kate Thompson said. “So to try to grow it some more, it just made sense to come to a bigger area. We intended to keep both open. Some factors happened that just didn’t allow us to do that.”
“And really the location we had in Huntingdon, it wasn’t the best location,” Moe Thompson added. “But it had a lot of the things in it that got us into a space at very minimal cost. I mean, it was completely shocking how many core customers we had, repetitive customers, but we weren’t able to pull the passersby just traveling through Huntingdon because we were in downtown. We weren’t off the highway, and there was no other shopping around like this [in the Benner Pike Shops].”
While the name and logo might give the impression that Moxmoe (a combination of the Thompsons’ dog Mox and Moe) Pictures is a movie-themed restaurant, that’s not quite the case — at least not in the way you might expect.
“The cinema side of it has nothing to do with Hollywood. It’s a deeper meaning,” Moe Thompson said. “We are about people, the everyday person and their stories, so we use the cinema as a metaphor to make highlights. When you watch a film you remember the one-liners, the funny scenes. Think of your life that way you remember going camping or you remember tailgating.
“The reason we chose subs is because it’s a simplistic, mainstream meal anymore. It gives us the creativity to do a lot of things for the busy family on the go, or the college student, or whatever. But they’re easy to take anywhere. It falls right in line with our message, that they get a catering platter, they get the tailgate, and get a couple subs, throw it in the cooler, go kayaking.”
Continuing with that metaphor, each of the pre-designed subs on the menu is a kind of character “named after what people are or what they like,” as Moe Thompson explained. For example, there’s their most popular items like The Mobster (a spicy Italian-style sub), The Hiker (ham, turkey, bacon and provolone) and The EMT (ham, salami, pepperoni and provolone). The Deep-Sea Fisherman is, of course, the tuna sub; the turkey sub is called The Road Hound; and, naturally, the veggie sub is In The Garden.
All of the cold sub options — which can also be toasted — from the Huntingdon shop are making their way to State College, along with a wide variety of toppings and sauces. The Thompsons bake their own bread and offer white, wheat or their special Everything Cheesy Bread, which has everything bagel seasoning and two types of cheese baked in.
The State College shop will have cheesesteaks but not the more extensive selection that had been offered in Huntingdon.
“We’re really trying to not overwhelm our staff, but also give good customer service and good experiences to people, which is part of the reason we pared that menu down,” Kate Thompson said. “… We know that there’s a lot of choices in State College, and we want to provide the best service we can.”
Moxmoe Pictures is also placing a special emphasis on the build-your-own options.
“We’re really trying to be known for a true build-your-own … a unique sub for a unique story,” Moe Thompson said. “So if you come in and you say you want tuna and roast beef and pickles and pepperoni and mild buffalo sauce, you can do that. It’s really about the creativity for the person and allowing them to get full ownership.”
Experiences are important to the Thompsons, who are both Penn State alumni (Kate majored in food science and worked at Del Grosso Foods for 18 years; Moe studied business and grew up with family who owned restaurants). They’re planning to do character days when they and their staff might dress as nurses or mechanics and offer something special to customers in the corresponding professions.
They also started a charitable endeavor called the Highlight Fund to provide single parents experiences they might not otherwise be able to afford to have with their kids.
“Again, it’s the memories,” Moe Thompson said. “So if they’ve never been to the zoo, can we buy tickets to the Pittsburgh Zoo, with Sheetz gift cards for fuel, just for them to make it a day, so they can remember it? … We’re excited to be part of the community, and we want to do good things.”
The Thompsons tentatively expect Moxmoe Pictures Famous Sandwiches to be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (It will be closed Saturday, Nov. 16, through Monday, Nov. 18.) Customers can order in-store or for pickup through the restaurant’s website and mobile app (available from Google and Apple). In time, third-party delivery services like Grubhub, UberEats and DoorDash will be available. For now though, they are taking things one day at a time.
“We just we don’t know what to expect,” Moe said. “I don’t want to have a line out the door and just be completely overwhelmed, because you want to make a good first impression, and we would rather be upfront and honest with people, saying ‘Hey, we’ll start slow here.”
